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FOUR SPECIALTIES

Maurice CHOQUARD is a specialist in all four following segments of the law:

I. CONTRACTS

As our Client, you shall enjoy our contract texts that are down-to-earth, systematic, concise but complete and easy to understand.  They demonstrate our special skills in addressing all necessary issues and in preventing conflicts or misunderstandings ahead.  Indeed, Maurice has acted for years as deal-maker, negotiating in English, in French and in German on the five Continents small and large trade matters and family disputes.

Whether you need an AGENCY AGREEMENT, a LICENSING AGREEMENT, a SHAREHOLDERS’ AGREEMENT or a SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT among the various members of a family, you will be happy with our English, French and German solutions. Indeed, a large part of our professional activity is dedicated to the negotiation, the drafting and the implementation of contracts.

It is customary but never a good practice to leave for the end of the negotiations the key-issues of the choice of law governing the contract and of the selected jurisdiction for all possible disputes.  It is indeed absurd to negotiate and draft a contract over weeks and months without knowing from the start which law shall govern.  A contract shall be entirely different whether it is governed by some USA law or, say by Suomi law.  In the USA, every detail is expected to be listed in the contract-text, which shall eventually look like a ‘bible’.   Because legal Statutes in the USA are not determinant, contrary to ‘precedent’ Court cases, USA-style contract texts must enunciate all rules agreed by the parties.

A good negotiator should have more than superficial knowledge of the laws, substantive and procedural, of all the parties going to commit themselves: misunderstandings are otherwise bound to occur.  Under Swiss law the obtaining of pieces of evidence through the Courts is very limited compared to the ‘discovery tools’ granted by the laws of the US.

Past success

  • Negotiating and drafting sales contracts for Swiss high-tech machinery with intelligence agencies of France, Russia and the USA.
  • Negotiating and drafting contracts for the transfer of a young star from a Swiss Super-League Football Club to one of the top Bundesliga one

II. NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL INHERITANCE LAW

One of the most complex fields of law is the law of inheritance, rendered even more complex if having international aspects caused by the mobility of people and the geographical explosion of families.

Past success

  • Asset protection through negotiations, litigations and judicial attachments in a dozen countries for the ‘de cuius’ wife and sons against a mistress seeking to divert US$ 800 mio. from deceased estate, a Greek ship-owner.

III. US-LAW

Lex Americana has conquered the world of international transactions, influencing many national laws and imposing itself in all aspects of cross-border matters.

As both a Swiss attorney and a member of the California bar, Maurice is best equipped for handling all types of your cross-border cases.

Having passed the California Bar exam and having practiced California law in San Francisco during 2,5 years certainly grant Maurice special valuable knowledge of USA-legal principles and practice.  This widely helps our firm’s international practice at large, that is to say not only with Northern America, as well as with other Common Law jurisdictions.  All issues of Common Law of course cannot be covered by a boutique law firm.  Nevertheless, our special academic knowledge and pragmatic experience are very useful for addressing your cross-border cases between Civil and Common Law jurisdictions.

As pictures are better than a million words, please look at the short interview Maurice gave in 2014 to the German spoken Swiss TV. Mr. Raoul WEIL, one of the highest executives of UBS-Switzerland, a Swiss citizen exclusively working in Switzerland, was about to face the jury of a Florida Criminal Court with charges of multiple assistances of tax evasion to the benefit of USA-citizens. Interestingly, his conduct was perfectly in accordance with Swiss law. This phenomenon should teach us that almost all aspects of international transactions are influenced or even governed by USA private and public laws, in a way or in another, rendering their knowledge even more important.

IV. EXTERNAL IN-HOUSE COUNSEL & FAMILY OFFICE / BOARD OF DIRECTORS SERVICES

As a rare opportunity to matching your need of filing-up for interim periods the position of in-house or general counsel of your entity, we shall gladly contract with you ‘à la carte’ missions to such end.

Practically, you will therewith entrust us for example with the responsibility of conducting specific contract negotiations or of executing the day-to-day business required by your vacant position, whether for a definite part-time period, for an indefinite period or until a given project result is achieved.

The role of a good legal counsel is no doubt to undertake everything possible to advise solutions aiming at avoiding legal problems and disputes. This is achieved by instructing elaborate concepts and by negotiating/drafting agreements that satisfactorily hold parties together for long period of times.  Big business is in the business of doing business.  Maurice’s business as an External In-house Counsel is to orchestrate legal entities or legal deals that will not suffer from disputes among the parties at stake.  This aim at implementing preventive law concepts is not a luxury but normality.

This special ability to act as External In-house Counsel or as Corporate Legal Fire-fighter is rendered possible thanks to years of special experience at the highest level of company’s legal departments:

  • In-house counsel of BBC BROWN BOVERI at the headquarters in Switzerland. Case samples of the most reputable and large cases:
    • the four USA-Corner State Projects, more than 2.1 billion US-dollars
    • the sale by BBC to ALSTOM in Paris of the CEM with 7’000 employees
    • the BAY JAMES Projects in Québec, 11 billions Canadian dollars
    • the ITAIPU-Dam-Project in Brazil & Paraguay, with the sale of sixteen turbines of 352 tons each
  • General counsel to KUEHNE & NAGEL INTERNATIONAL at the headquarters in Switzerland. Case samples:
    • the purchase of one marine insurance company in Melbourne, Australia
    • a joint venture with the largest Brazilian trucker companies
    • counselling the purchase and reorganization of the distribution of the VINS NICOLAS, gathering more of 350 shops in greater Paris, France

Is your Family Office or your company’s Board of directors in need of a ‘generalist’ attorney at law with experience in both Civil and Common Law systems as well as in-house / general counsel?  Maurice is ideally prepared to serve in both such positions, especially with international exposures, or to lead your Family Office.

Past success

  • Organizing, contracting and wiring all funds related to the yearly luxury vacation trips of the whole family of a French HNWI.